I make coffee at home. Always have.
But you know what is different? I don’t feel bad anymore about giving a low tip or even not tipping at all because the entire concept has been exploited and inflated to insane levels across almost every industry.
I was prompted for a minimum 18% tip at the gas station when I bought a bottle of water and that was when I decided it was okay not to feel guilty about not tipping anymore.
I go out for coffee occasionally because it is my excuse for getting out of the house.
I agree on the tipping. If I’m serving myself I’m not tipping. I don’t feel guilty and I don’t care if they are looking. I sometimes tip if it is a holiday and I feel they should get a little extra for that.
Yes, occasionally if I’m meeting someone somewhere I will choose a local shop and I’m happy to pay just for the convenience of a “3rd place” to meet someone.
I’ve legit gone back to cash for petty transactions. If I feel like throwing the change in the tip jar, I will. But there are no stupid prompts for a tip to deal with. Unfortunately, a lot of places are going cash free. Professional sports games is one example. Hey beer man, thanks for handling me my $12 beer. No, I’m not tipping for that.
So I understand why so many places like stadiums and airplanes are going cash free, but then I wonder if that’s even technically legal as cash literally says legal tender for all debts public and private.
The only place I ever use cash anymore is to fuel my sporadic video poker habit.
I damn near feel like a criminal using it anywhere else.
And the day you can go throw your debit card into a video poker machine is the day I stop gambling. As ferociously disciplined of a gambler as I am (and I am ferociously disciplined with my budgets) I cannot in any way see that eventuality as ending well for any customer.
Anywho, rambling tangents complete, I wonder if cash will remain viable over the forthcoming years.
if that’s even technically legal as cash literally says legal tender for all debts public and private.
I’m guessing one could argue the right to refuse service to those not using their preferred kind of payment.
That’s correct. Legal tender can be used to settle all debts. In a retail transaction there’s no debt until a purchase agreement is made, so they can refuse cash before the agrrement.
Yeah, u definitely can’t budget gambling if they have a card with all your money on it. Maybe they’ll have what arcades have now where you buy a card, and load it with money or something. I also wouldn’t gamble in a cashless society. As it stands right now, you win a few bucks, you just get cash. If it’s all traceable, uncle Sam is going to want a cut of your winnings every time.
They’ll keep it up as long as business is good. If people will pay 12$ for a latte and lines are out the door, and there are no regulations to stop price gouging and predatory behavior, why wouldn’t they?
Lattes aren’t essential. Charging $12 for one is neither predatory nor price gouging. It’s arguably exploitatative but I don’t feel it’s our job to tell people they’re not allowed to waste their own money.
Acting on “what the market will bear” instead of what at cost as well as labour is predatory in that it is opportunistic in the basic definition of what makes predatory behaviour predatory. It is also gouging as it is setting a price range that can be considered exclusionary. And then to also attack a customer who feels this and speaks it can be considered victim blaming as you’re enabling these behaviours by dismissing the feedback of the victim, which again is being exclusionary by enforcing their money to be taken but not allowing they can be part of the feedback or setting boundaries of what is happening to them.
When you call someone choosing to buy a $12 latte a victim it makes everything else you say impossible to take seriously.
If these people have been raised by exploitative pricing all their life, I honestly am not sure who to blame anymore.
you use ‘choice’ like $3 latte is an option. You’re bent on manipulating people so it’s hard to take you seriously.
You can get a latte at Dunkin donuts for $2.69 or McDonald’s for $1. Or, and this is going to blow your mind, you can live without lattes. We’re not talking about insulin ffs. How fucking entitled are you talking about a luxury item like it’s a necessity lmao
I think coffee shops should 100% be allowed to price gouge. Its a product anyone can easily make at home for pennies.
It’s like those multi million dollar art installations that’s literally just a yellow square with a red dot in the middle.
to be fair a setup that can make espresso drinks in the same quality league as coffee shops will cost in the range of 1000-3000€ but if you drink one cup per day then you can save that amount in a year by making coffee at home
Well, in that case, I don’t think anyone can make the case that espresso is a necessity, so again, gouge away.
If you can afford a 1-3K espresso setup you probably don’t think about saving money on coffee
well if you got savings but low income you can afford one time costs such as that. i got a 1k espresso setup mainly so i dont have to spend 20-40% of my disposable income on coffee from cafes
Bambino is 600, if you do the math it pays itself off in like two or three months of owning one vs going to a coffee shop.
Bambino won’t pull the same shots that a great independent coffee shop’s equipment will.
It is if you learn how to set the temp settings and use the right bean, grind size and milk. A decent cup of coffee is the sum of parts. And if the customer who does all this is just as satisfied, that’s all that matters.
That’s just not correct. Yes, a drink is the sum of the parts, but if all 4 parts are 9.9/10, and your Bambino can’t get to 9.9/10 level, the drink will come out inferior.
Although I do agree with your last statement, the Bambino cannot pull a shot like a high-grade industrial machine can.
I’m going out on a limb and argue that a great cup of coffee can probably be made with some rather simple and cheap lab equipment.
And so easy just grow your own beans on your acres of land, toil it, roast those beans and voila. Same with brewing your own beer, grow your hops…etc. or wine, grow your own grapes…
You could say that about any food really.
But if you say that oh, the frazzled parents and people who live in mere apartments without land to grow this stuff or people with two jobs and can’t pick their own farm land will come down on you so hard. So spoilt.
I think you know that your analogy is false
I have a hard time arguing for price controls for lattes. We aren’t talking water or housing or basic staples of food here.
It is like people who continue to feed ticketmaster and the resale markets with their predatory fees and prices. Why shouldn’t they keep doing it if people will keep paying their insane prices for nonessentials?
Legit not arguing but other than going to the physical box office, what alternatives are there to Ticketmaster? I would love to know so I can stop giving them money.
Absolutely. There is no real alternative for most people but at least it isn’t a necessity. They have a nice monopoly going.
Just go to venues where you buy direct.
I try when possible but time and distance, and some lack box offices, don’t always make this an option. I can’t afford the overpriced shows anyway.
Go to venues that you deal with them direct. Is it really important that you see the most popular musician at the best venue or is it more important that you heard some fun music with your friends? Make a decision and live with the decision
I treated myself to a latte today and it was a bit over 5 dollars. There was no tip option on the pad. This was at Dunkin
Don’t visit their bathroom’s tho. You might get covered with human feces.
you can do that in any bathroom
Except in this case, its WAAAAAAY worse. https://www.businessinsider.com/man-sues-dunkin-toilet-explosion-trauma-florida-2024
I know men’s rooms have never been clean clean, but lately when I go in it’s like someone tries to piss all around the seat in the stall.
The urinal isn’t much better as there are clearly a lot of dudes who need a doctor to check up on their lack of water pressure so they dribble all over the floor.
I normally point myself in the general direction, close my eyes, and release, along with my hopes and prayers /s
But maybe it’s because people can’t tear their eyes away from their phones for even the time required to urinate, and so they really have no idea what happened, but the video they’re watching was hilarious.
It was a video of some jackwagon pissing on the seat.
Jesus
I couldn’t tell you, I stopped going to coffee bars when the coffee became more than half my hourly wage, I’ll make my own coffee thank you very much.
Can’t even go to a McDonald’s anymore without spending at least $16, I’ve stopped going to McDonald’s and started ordering Applebee’s because if I’m spending $20 on a meal anyway I might as well spent $4 more on there two for 24 deal and get like three times the amount of food
I bought 4 double cheese burgers last night for less than 5 pounds. I’m in the UK though.
And have socialized healthcare (although poorly implemented).
Now we just need a living wage for the customers
At least we’ve been always be allowed to strike by boycotting bad shops. What is the actual cost price of a latte over there?
A venti 591ml caffe latte from Starbucks is about 8.08$cdn before tax or tip. I don’t go to Starbuck much anymore.
2022 is not that long ago lol.
Easy. Just make your own coffee. It’s cheap. Start with an Aero Press, a cheap grinder and a decent water cooker. Nice beans. Done.
Is a water cooker different than a kettle? Serious question from someone who just started non-drip coffee.
I think they just used that as a descriptor as you can essentially cook water in a couple of ways. Microwave in a cup, use the hot water out of a boiler or hot water attachment on machine, boil in a pot on the stove. My preference is an electric glass kettle.
Or Nespresso! Their patents have expired, so now you can enjoy a world of great and easy coffee at home without sponsoring Nestlé! Both 3rd party machines and coffee pods are available.
Aren;t those pods usually horrible for the enviroment though?
Also, it seems so incredibly expensive to drink that daily.
Usually, yes. There are reusable pods you fill with coffee grounds now, though.
First time hearing of Aero Press, interesting concept. I can also recommend the French press or going Turkish.
Aero press is the bomb when travelling. Awesome invention.
Which local coffee shop? By now there’s probably 8 of them, all selling what amounts to something a well built professional coffee vending machine could produce.
Imagine a coffee vending machine with all the same ingredients that they use, which isn’t much really just different coffees and syrups and milks and stuff, and has the fancy coffee making gear inside to automate the whole process, even the fancy pour designs people like.
That really doesn’t sound difficult at all compared to funding an entire shop, with rent, staff, electricity for everything, all those consumables, etc etc.
I’m not saying do away with coffee shops, I’m just saying that instead of having one around every street corner, maybe replace some of them with awesome vending machines, and leave those spaces free for a non-profit community space or something :-D
We have them in the UK. They are equivalent quality coffees to the coffee shop they are branded with.
Not quite as nice as a decent non chain coffee shop and they only use cow milk, but they aren’t bad.
Kinda like this? https://www.cafexapp.com/locations
Of course it’s in the Texas gigafactory. Otherwise Elon might have to pay someone.
Robots don’t go union.
Yet
We don’t really have this whole tipping thing here.
I’ve had coffee in two places recently. One was in a hypermarket. I don’t remember what the coffee costs there, because it came free with the meal. If the restaurant staff feel they don’t get paid enough, I don’t care if they get inspiration from France and torch every car in the parking lot. You see, I go to the hypermarket by foot. It’s not that far away.
The other place I had coffee recently was in the train. 2.80€. I certainly hope the restaurant car staff gets paid well. They’re technically railroad employees, after all. You don’t fuck with railroad workers.
Image Transcription: Twitter Post
Chris Bakke, @ChrisJBakke
The year is 2024.
You walk into your local coffee shop. A latte costs $12.
You have the choice of tipping 75%, 95%, or 125%.
You sheepishly tap “75%” and feel bad about yourself.
The barista shakes his head in disgust.
I haven’t seen a $12 late where I’m from, they’re usually about $4-5
And the company probably made a net profit of 5 billion — a 25% rise from the previous year.
And people complain that they are broke yet they continue to spend $$$ on things like cafe coffee
The barista is making 13$ per hour
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I tip every time I’m at a sit-down restaurant, and infrequently at other places (mostly local places, to keep them afloat - they have it harder than the food chains). That being said, if they want us to tip for just food prep and cooking, maybe make the food half-off, then we can tip them if the food is better than we thought? $5 burger…It was really good, I guess I will give them $9. $5 burger that is crap, well, it stays a $5 burger.
Or, hear me out, $9 burger no tip and I’ll come back if it was good.
I mean, that works too I guess. But, if they insist on asking for tips, that’s the only way I’m tipping at a no-service restaurant.
